


souls still can

by orphan_account



Category: X-Men (Ultimateverse)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-07-16
Updated: 2007-07-16
Packaged: 2017-10-11 16:22:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/114314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Warren lets himself be persuaded to join the other mutants.</p>
            </blockquote>





	souls still can

Despite the warm welcome and the way people flock around him, Warren feels like the odd one out most of the time at the Academy. It's not that the other kids behave that way consciously towards him - they're all perfectly friendly and sometimes a little too friendly, in the cases of some of his fellow schoolmates.

But they look at his wings, and he hates his wings. He can't help it, he's been taught to hate them since he was five years old, shiny white feathers glued to his wet limbs and torso, making him look like a young chicken fledgling. He remembers his mother telling him with a chuckle about his birth fairly often, in his early years, one of the few clear memories he has of her. She died when he was five.

His father has always called his condition a sickness as long as Warren can remember.

They want to touch them, his classmates, they crowd around him, especially the younger ones, hoping to hear a story of what it's like in heaven. Angel. Funny, he's never really liked that name, but it's stuck.

"You all right, buddy?" Bobby sticks his head through the gap in the door he left carelessly open. "We're going out to play baseball; want to join our team? We could really use the help!"

Warren tilts his head to the side. "I don't think so."

"Oh, come on!" Bobby enters and Warren sees that he's holding a bat, bouncing on the heels of his shoes. "Rogue and Kitty are playing as well, and Evan and Rain and Jamie are trying to recruit more players."

"I think I'd rather study," Warren points at the book at the head of his bed. "Sorry. Storm's making me catch up in all major subjects so that I'll be able to take my finals some time next year." He's going on eighteen, and he's stuck with kids barely twelve years old in some of his classes.

Bobby's face falls. "You sure? It's just gonna be a hour or two."

Warren shakes his head. "Sorry." He doesn't really know any of the kids Bobby mentioned. He knows Kitty, because she showed him around, and Rogue, who was the talk of the school for a while because she took the cure and isn't mutant anymore, but is allowed to stay anyway. But he doesn't know their powers, he doesn't know what they do, what they like, who they were before...

When he looks up from the floor, Bobby's gone.

 

~*~

 

Fifteen minutes later, Kitty comes running through his wall. "Warren, you big wuss, don't let us play alone! We need a few more people!"

"Kitty," he says, helpless, because it's Kitty. How can you say no to her? "Is that your power?" he asks instead.

"What?"

"You just walked through the door."

"Oh, yeah." Kitty beams. "There's no door that can stop me. I walk through walls, doors, metal lockers... 's very practical."

"I bet."

"You wanna try?" She vanishes half in the floor and comes up again a second later.

"Can I?" It sounds amazing. He could only ever fly.

"Only if you take me, too!" she asks with a nod towards his wings. "I've always wanted to fly!"

Warren frowns. "Really? What's so special about it?"

"I could ask you the same!" she thumps his shoulder. "What's so special about walking through walls? But it IS! Just because you could do it from the day you were born doesn't mean other people don't envy you because of it!"

The next moment, they're sinking into the bed and it's a feeling like he's just become smoke, like his whole body kind of... moves, gets split into a billion little atoms and he can see into the wood of his bed, and then, the floor and...

"Whoops!" Kitty's eyes are wide as they fall.

Warren lands on the floor with a big thump. Kitty falls through the floor and then, she's standing next to him again.

"Wait till I let you go in mid-air," Warren groans. "I bet you'll like it as much as I enjoyed this!"

Another voice joins into Kitty's protests. "Guys?"

"Sorry, Peter!" Kitty says, shame-faced. "I didn't mean to!"

Peter narrows his eyes. "You said it wasn't going to happen again!"

"I said it wasn't going to happen again while you were undressing!" Kitty grins.

"Ah."

"Sorry," Warren feels required to say. "I didn't mean to -"

Peter's the tall, brawny boy he's seen carrying the heavy things around the mansion. Warren wonders if his power is super-strenght. He sure looks like it would be. He's not much taller than Warren, but where Warren is slim and wiry, Peter's all muscles. When Peter winks at him, Warren feels himself flush.

"You're not the one able to fall through ceilings, are you?" Peter interrupts him and glances at Kitty disapprovingly.

Kitty pouts. "I didn't force him, if that's what you mean!"

"You lost control over your powers. Above my room." Peter's serene face turns into a smile. "Lucky you I wasn't doing anything incriminating."

Kitty waves him off. "Like I didn't see you jerk off before..."

"What?" Peter gasps, open-mouthed.

"What?" Warren blinks at Kitty, horrified. "You did? Do I have to put a sock on my door or something to stop you from coming in?"

"Oh, please, do!" Kitty bounces slightly. "It'd be a pleasure."

"I'm sure," Peter smirks.

Warren flushes some more. "Can I go back to my room now?"

"Why aren't you guys playing baseball with Bobby, anyway?" Peter asks. "He was recruiting a team only a few minutes ago, I hear?"

"Are you playing? Are you playing?" Kitty takes Peter's wrist and tugs. "Come on, Colossus, we can totally use you as a hitter! You can be on my team!" She turns to Warren. "I'm a hitter too!"

"She's deadly," Peter tells Warren in a secretive voice. "But don't tell her. She'll get a swelled head!"

Kitty sticks out her tongue at him. "So are you two coming now, or what?"

Warren feels Peter's gaze on his face and feels himself redden. He nods awkwardly.

"Fine, then. Count me in," Peter says and smiles a little at Warren.

 

~*~

 

"You were close with them?" Warren asks after the game's over. His team won, in a team effort, and Warren can't quite keep the pleased smile off his face.

"With who?" Peter runs the back of his hand over his sweaty forehead. His skin's glistening in the sun and when he runs his fingers through his hair, it sticks up in all directions.

"The other X-Men. The ones who died." Warren bites his lips. "Jean and Scott. People talk about them a lot. They must have been brilliant."

"Not really," Peter says and then shakes his head. "I mean, yes, they were brilliant, but no, I wasn't very close with them."

"Oh. I thought."

"Logan. Logan and me, we were kind of... friends. But he takes off for months at a time. He can't stay here, at the school. It's like a cage for him."

"I see."

"Yeah." Peter glances at him. "So. I'm beat. Fancy a shower?"

Warren blushes bright red. "What? You mean, like, together?"

Peter throws his head back and laughs. He's very handsome, it suddenly strikes Warren. Warren knows he's pretty himself; but Peter is differently so. Peter's powerful.

"Yeah. We can shower in the locker rooms down near the training center."

Warren nods. He hates taking off his clothes. He hates showing the bits of scarred skin where his wings grow out of his back. He hates the fact that he's responsible for that himself, because he cut them off when he was six, and eight, and twelve. Nobody cares that there are nerves running through every feather and that it hurts like a bitch when one even bends in the wrong direction.

 

~*~

 

Really, it's Peter who kisses him first, because he's Peter, and confident and everything Warren isn't.

"We shouldn't," Warren mumbles into the kiss and his hair's still wet from the shower and dripping onto his t-shirt and jeans.

"Why?" Peter asks, clueless, and Warren replies, "Because it's another thing."

"Oh." Peter kisses him again, lips against lips, softly and draws away. "You think people will care."

Warren looks at the ground. "They always do. They tell you they don't, but they do."

Peter looks at him, really looks at him, and their gazes lock and Warren can't look away, and then Peter sighs. "Sorry."

"What for?"

"Kissing you."

"Oh." Warren doesn't want Peter to be sorry. He really wants them to kiss again, but it's wrong, people don't. It's not accepted, no more than being a mutant is. "It's just..."

"You're scared." Peter smiles at him. "I understand."

Warren rustles his wings and tries not to feel anything at all, because his emotions are so jumbled, a mix of disappointment and relief and desire and fear. He nods instead, and smiles back, and it feels like a grimace.

They walk upstairs together, and Kitty's waiting for them, grinning, and dinner's ready, but Warren feels like maybe he should give it a try, just this one. He's scared though, so scared.

"You can -" Peter starts, then falls silent. "We can still be friends, though," he finally says.

Warren looks at him. Peter seems like a decent bloke, someone you can talk with, someone who'll understand. He's not a brain whiz, he's just... pretty ordinary, really. "Okay," Warren says.

"Okay," Peter replies and touches his shoulder. "Okay."

Warren thinks that maybe, they'll work it out as they go.

 

~*~

~~ _written in July 2007_


End file.
